Health centers in Belo Horizonte receive world’s top engineering award

The Public-Private Partnership project delivered 48 units. This is the 11th time the OEC has won the award

The Belo Horizonte City Hall Health Centers project, carried out through the Public-Private Partnership SPE Saúde BH and built by OEC – Odebrecht Engenharia e Construção, was the winner in the Health Care category of the Global Best Projects award, promoted by the US specialist magazine ENR. This is the 11th time that OEC has received the award, considered the Oscar of world engineering.

In 2021, OEC received the award for the Laúca and Vias de Luanda projects in Angola. In 2020, the company won the main category, Best Overall Project, with the Colón Redevelopment project in Panama. The first time the construction company received the distinction was in 2012, with the execution of the MIA Mover, in Miami (USA).

Health PPP

The PPP is between Belo Horizonte City Hall and the concessionaire SPE Saúde BH. Started in 2019, the partnership has delivered 48 Health Centers in the capital of Minas Gerais.

OEC is the construction company for the Health Centers, which uses an innovative methodology, providing speed and efficiency. The fast pace of deliveries is only possible thanks to the centralization of several units in a single contract, which generates a gain in scale, and the choice of the Light Steel Frame construction method, a technology whose main characteristic is its easy-to-execute installation, with closure by plasterboard walls and/or cementitious slabs.

The project is a clear example of the advantages of contracting via PPPs. Established in Brazil around 20 years ago, these partnerships have become increasingly used by public authorities to make projects of social interest feasible while managing the scarcity of budgetary resources.

Belo Horizonte’s Health Centers have a reception, administrative areas, offices for the Family Health Teams, a pharmacy, waiting rooms, collection and vaccination rooms, dental offices, observation rooms, dressing rooms and hygiene rooms. The project also includes the installation of a multi-purpose room, a pantry, a lounge, changing rooms, toilets, spaces for community agents and epidemic control, with a total built area of more than 50,000 square meters for all the structures.

Cleaning and maintenance services, building maintenance, property security, clinical engineering (supply and maintenance of furniture and equipment) and utilities management are the responsibility of the private partner, which is dedicated to all services that are not part of the hospital’s core business. Services related to medical care remain the responsibility of the public partner.

Governance is a premise

In this contracting model, the services provided by SPE Saúde BH are evaluated on a monthly basis by an independent verification entity and only then does it receive the counterpart from the granting authority. The company is paid and evaluated on the quality of the service provided to users based on pre-established criteria. At the end of the concession period, the physical structures and equipment acquired all become part of public property and are returned in a fully preserved state to the granting authority.